The Fight for God in the Public SquareThursday, February 18, 2010 |
Editorial by Donald P. Wagner
Not long before the Christmas Holidays, a group of leftist community college professors and a couple of anonymous students, working with lawyers from the atheist group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a federal lawsuit against the South Orange County Community College District and several members of its Board of Trustees, including me. The gist of their complaint was that a speech I gave in support of religious freedom, a joke another trustee told based on the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, a patriotic slide show with a single mention of Jesus, and the college district's practice of opening commencement ceremonies, awards ceremonies, and other events with prayer, all violated the U.S. and California Constitutions.
The decision to fight this misguided lawsuit was an easy one for me and most of my colleagues on the Board of Trustees to make. Neither the law nor overwhelming public opinion is on the atheist left's side in this fight. I received overwhelming support from the community for our position and opposition to the efforts of Americans United. Only a single postcard, from a guy in Ohio, supported the lawsuit.
Unfortunately, we are caught up in just another of the many efforts the atheist left has made over the last few years to drive all mention of the divine from public life. For example, the high profile efforts of Michael Newdow to get the phrase "under God" dropped from the pledge of allegiance and the phrase "in God we trust" dropped from our currency made headlines a few years ago. Seemingly not a Christmas goes by without some atheist scourge whining about manger scenes and menorahs. Even the Orange County Superior Court had a fight last Christmas over a tree. Crosses on public land and reference to the Ten Commandments are also routinely challenged.
Seemingly any mention of God or religion in the public square, no matter how minor or fleeting or historically accurate or supported by the public, makes the ACLU and Americans United and their fellow travelers squeamish and it's off to court they go to protect their feelings.
But the constitution does not require such open hostility to religion from government officials. In fact, we have already seen significant success in our fight.
After winning the first two rounds of pleading skirmishes, the professors now allege only a single claim that my speech in support of religious liberty, the Jonah joke, and our simple invocations "establish" a religion in violation of Thomas Jefferson's so-called "wall of separation" between church and state. To support this bare allegation, the professors – all adults and all well educated – claim that they are "offended" and "uncomfortable" listening to a simple invocation at the start of a graduation or other ceremony. Seriously.
But does Jefferson's wall of separation really mean that government must be silent as to any mention of the divine for fear of offending someone? The answer, of course, is no. The Supreme Court allows Ten Commandment monuments; legislatures open their sessions with invocations; days of prayer and religious Thanksgiving are routinely declared by our presidents. We can also take as authority for this answer none other than Thomas Jefferson himself.
Our nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal. Jefferson declares that principle in the Declaration of Independence as a "self-evident" truth. And central to this concept, of course, is the acknowledgement of a creator. Indeed, after writing the Declaration, Jefferson proceeded to serve as our third president, where he attended church worship services in the Capital Building itself. In other words, the author of the wall of separation metaphor saw no breach of that wall by explicit mention of our creator in the nation's founding documents or in attending worship services on government property.
Indeed, in the very letter where he coined the wall phrase, President Jefferson went on to express his hopes and prayers to our "common father and creator of man." Certainly the idea that public officials in public settings may not mention God or religion – the very idea our professors push in their lawsuit – finds no support in the public conduct or words of Thomas Jefferson. Very much unlike our leftist professors, Jefferson was not squeamish at the mention of God.
Not long before the Christmas Holidays, a group of leftist community college professors and a couple of anonymous students, working with lawyers from the atheist group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a federal lawsuit against the South Orange County Community College District and several members of its Board of Trustees, including me. The gist of their complaint was that a speech I gave in support of religious freedom, a joke another trustee told based on the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, a patriotic slide show with a single mention of Jesus, and the college district's practice of opening commencement ceremonies, awards ceremonies, and other events with prayer, all violated the U.S. and California Constitutions.
The decision to fight this misguided lawsuit was an easy one for me and most of my colleagues on the Board of Trustees to make. Neither the law nor overwhelming public opinion is on the atheist left's side in this fight. I received overwhelming support from the community for our position and opposition to the efforts of Americans United. Only a single postcard, from a guy in Ohio, supported the lawsuit.
Unfortunately, we are caught up in just another of the many efforts the atheist left has made over the last few years to drive all mention of the divine from public life. For example, the high profile efforts of Michael Newdow to get the phrase "under God" dropped from the pledge of allegiance and the phrase "in God we trust" dropped from our currency made headlines a few years ago. Seemingly not a Christmas goes by without some atheist scourge whining about manger scenes and menorahs. Even the Orange County Superior Court had a fight last Christmas over a tree. Crosses on public land and reference to the Ten Commandments are also routinely challenged.
Seemingly any mention of God or religion in the public square, no matter how minor or fleeting or historically accurate or supported by the public, makes the ACLU and Americans United and their fellow travelers squeamish and it's off to court they go to protect their feelings.
But the constitution does not require such open hostility to religion from government officials. In fact, we have already seen significant success in our fight.
After winning the first two rounds of pleading skirmishes, the professors now allege only a single claim that my speech in support of religious liberty, the Jonah joke, and our simple invocations "establish" a religion in violation of Thomas Jefferson's so-called "wall of separation" between church and state. To support this bare allegation, the professors – all adults and all well educated – claim that they are "offended" and "uncomfortable" listening to a simple invocation at the start of a graduation or other ceremony. Seriously.
But does Jefferson's wall of separation really mean that government must be silent as to any mention of the divine for fear of offending someone? The answer, of course, is no. The Supreme Court allows Ten Commandment monuments; legislatures open their sessions with invocations; days of prayer and religious Thanksgiving are routinely declared by our presidents. We can also take as authority for this answer none other than Thomas Jefferson himself.
Our nation was founded on the principle that all men are created equal. Jefferson declares that principle in the Declaration of Independence as a "self-evident" truth. And central to this concept, of course, is the acknowledgement of a creator. Indeed, after writing the Declaration, Jefferson proceeded to serve as our third president, where he attended church worship services in the Capital Building itself. In other words, the author of the wall of separation metaphor saw no breach of that wall by explicit mention of our creator in the nation's founding documents or in attending worship services on government property.
Indeed, in the very letter where he coined the wall phrase, President Jefferson went on to express his hopes and prayers to our "common father and creator of man." Certainly the idea that public officials in public settings may not mention God or religion – the very idea our professors push in their lawsuit – finds no support in the public conduct or words of Thomas Jefferson. Very much unlike our leftist professors, Jefferson was not squeamish at the mention of God.
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